Product Description

Skits & sketches from the BBC television series Monty Python's Flying Circus, arranged into a feature film.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 25-OCT-2005
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7602 in DVD
• Brand: MONTY PYTHON
• Released on: 1999-08-03
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
Monty Python's first feature is essentially a reworking of their best skits from the first two seasons of their cult TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, shot on film outside the usual studio sets (Nudge Nudge, for example, is set in a tavern filled with passersby). As the TV series was as yet unseen in the U.S. at the time of this feature, And Now for Something Completely Different became for many Americans their first taste of the Pythons' brand of surreal, silly humor and remains a fond favorite. The writing and performances are fine and the film is packed with some of their best bits: How to Avoid Being Seen, Hell's Grannies, Blackmail, The Lumberjack Song, and The Upper Class Twit of the Year, among others. Many of the sketches have been shortened, however, and the loss of the overbright video sheen (the film has a muddy, dull look to it) and the invigorating presence of a live audience leaves the film sluggish at times. They're still feeling out the possibilities of the feature-length, which they finally conquer with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, still their finest hour and a half. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

A GREAT introduction to the funniest troupe of all time
This was America's first big-screen look at the Pythons -- not a film, per se, but some of the troupe's best sketches from the early years of the TV show, reshot for the screen. As such, yeah, if you've seen the TV shows, you'll know all the words, but isn't that part of the fun?

Actually, some of the sketches DO work better in this film -- the Restaurant Sketch, for example (where every member of a restaurant staff comes to one diner's table to apologize for a dirty fork) comes together better here, if only because it doesn't have the jumpy close-ups of John Cleese ("You bastards!") that break the rhythm of the original TV sketch. Others, such as Dead Parrot and The Lumberjack Song, will work, no matter HOW you do them, and they're just as funny here as they are on TV or live. And the Upperclass Twit of the Year remains a highlight of this film, and of the early TV years as well.

If you're collecting the complete TV series that A&E is presently releasing, then you've already got all the sketches shown here. But that's no reason to stay away from ANFSCD -- it's a great way to introduce the uninitiated to the Pythons. And for those who are already fans and may own the TV sketches, it's STILL interesting to compare the filmed sketches with their TV counterparts.

Ultimately, ANFSCD still holds up, even three decades later. Check it out.

"And now, a man with a tape recorder up his brother's nose..."

Clean, Clear, and Funny
This movie introduces no new material to Monty Python's body of work. It selects several key routines from the first two series of Monty Python's Flying Circus and reshoots them. So why bother?

Because this is easier to watch.

This film was shot as part of an abortive attempt to introduce Monty Python to an American audience (which wouldn't actually be accopmlished for another three years). Where the original series suffered from a low budget and spotty production values, this film has high-end production quality, including clean sound, a single variable-angle 35mm camera, and the exclusion of the laugh track that muddied the sound on the TV series. There was obviously money for retakes, allowing the boys to edit out minor line muffs and giving them permission to experiment with their character delivery.

The picture is clear and organic. The sound is clean and audible. The characters are fun and believable. Just what we've always loved about Monty Python, isn't it?

But be warned, except for one or two linking jokes, this is material that you've already seen. Don't expect anything that will take your beloved boys in new directions, and don't think you'll get anything new. Just sit back, hear the jokes you've never heard clearly before, and laugh out loud. That's what they wanted, isn't it?

A great introduction, but not great Python
After their groundbreaking TV series, British loonies Monty Python decided to try their hands at filmmaking. Produced by Hugh Hefner (who also produced Polanski's MACBETH) and directed by Ian McNaughton, who produced and directed the television shows, AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT might well have been called "Monty Python's Greatest Hits", as it is simply a collection of some of the best skits from the show, with a coat of gloss. The skits selected are excellent, and occasionally surpass their TV counterparts. More often than not, however, these new versions are a bit too dry, lacking the immmediacy of the live television atmosphere; and inevitably, there are a few bits missing whose exclusion many fans will regret. Terry Gilliam's animations, without the audience laughing along onscreen, are really bizarre and even occasionally disturbing, but every bit as funny as before. Some of the skits included here are: "The Parrot Sketch" (of course), which they rather ingeniously fuse with "The Lumberjack Song"; "Hell's Grannies"; "Nudge Nudge"; "The Upper Class Twit of the Year"; "World Forum"; "Vocational Guidance Counsellor". Overall, if you aren't a Python fan or know nothing of the group, this might be for you; it's a great introduction. For fans (like me), though, if you haven't seen this yet you might just as well not do so, except for the sake of completeness, but as the film which served to introduce American audiences to their particular brand of comical lunacy, it deserves honorable mention. Python on film would not hit its stride till their next feature, the glorious HOLY GRAIL. (Only that time they would direct themselves, with much more interesting results). In any case, catch "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to see these (and many, many more) skits in their original (and usually much funnier) form.